Fort Worth Representative Lon Burnam Files Texas' First Post-DOMA Marriage Equality Bill

Back in February, when the Texas legislature was in session the first time, Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, authored a bill aimed to authorize "a marriage between two persons of the same sex in this state and repealing the statutory prohibition against the recognition of a civil union or similar relationship entered into in another state between two persons of the same sex."

It's not surprising that Burnam's bill never got any traction. This was almost five months ago, before the Supreme Court reached a decision in United States v. Windsor and struck down substantial chunks of the Defense of Marriage Act. This is a new, week-old epoch, and on Monday Burnam filed another bill with the same aim as the last one.

This bill's chances of getting any farther than the last one range from insignificant to nonexistent, but Burnam told us he thought it was important to file the legislation anyway.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," he said. "And this is the second step. It's a vehicle to keep talking about what's going on at the national level."

More at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/07/fort_worth_representative_file.php .

Cross-posted in Texas Group.